By Heyes:(NaturalNews) A new study has found that the world's best-selling herbicide is linked to the global rise of celiac disease, gluten intolerance and irritable bowel syndrome.

According to the U.S. peer-reviewed study, the details of which were published by Dr. Anthony Samsel and Dr. Stephanie Seneff, the rise in disease has coincided with the increased use of glyphosate (Roundup) herbicide.

The paper has been published in the Journal of Interdisciplinary Toxicology.

The researchers say that, based on their findings, one in 20 people in North America and Western Europe how suffer from celiac disease, which is essentially gluten intolerance.

"Gluten intolerance is a growing epidemic in the U.S. and, increasingly, worldwide," said the researchers in their paper.

"All of the known biological effects of glyphosate -- cytochrome P450 inhibition, disruption of synthesis of aromatic amino acids, chelation of transition metals, and antibacterial action -- contribute to the pathology of celiac disease," the paper states.

Widespread planting of Roundup Ready genetically modified crops has made Monsanto's Roundup the number-one selling herbicide. But, according to this latest study, its increased use has come at a price.

As described by Sustainable Pulse:
Celiac disease is a digestive disease that damages the small intestine and interferes with absorption of nutrients from food. People who have celiac disease cannot tolerate gluten, a protein in wheat, rye, and barley. Gluten is found mainly in foods but may also be found in everyday products such as medicines, vitamins, and lip balms.

When people with the condition eat foods that contain gluten, their immune systems respond by destroying or damaging villi -- the small, fiber-like protrusions that line the small intestine. Normally, villi allow food nutrients to be absorbed through the walls of the small intestine into the bloodstream, but without healthy villi, celiac sufferers can become malnourished, regardless of the amount of food they ingest.